It is a missing persons investigation which has been dominated by unanswered questions and wild conspiracy theories.
But 29 days after Jay Slater vanished on the Spanish island of Tenerife, possessions and clothing belonging to the missing teenager have been discovered next to a body.
Although Spanish police are awaiting full identification, they say that ‘everything is pointing to it being a young British man’ who could have ‘suffered an accident or fall in the inaccessible area where he was found’.
Missing persons charity LBT Global revealed the body was discovered close to to the last known location where Jay’s mobile pinged near the remote village of Masca, north-west Tenerife.
Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, in Lancashire, disappeared the morning after attending the New Rave Generation music festival with friends in the Playa de las Americas party resort on June 17.
A body has been found in the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater (pictured)
Various videos show Jay partying the night away at the Papagayo Beach Club on Tenerife’s infamous Veronicas Strip.
At around 5am, Jay left strip and got into a Seat Leon hire car with British man Ayub Qassim, 31, and Qassim’s unnamed friend.
While in the car Jay sent a Snapchat message to his friends boasting that he had just stolen a £12,000 Rolex watch from a reveller and was going to sell it for £10,000.
Quite why Jay went from Playas de Americas – where he was already renting a holiday apartment – and travelled the hour it took Qassim to drive 19 miles to the Airbnb in the Rural de Teno park, close to Masca village is open to speculation.
Jay left the remote cottage after less than 90 minutes there to catch the bus back to Playa de las Americas.
The last person to see him alive was cleaner Ophelia Media Hernandez, who told him that the next bus wasn’t due for another two hours.
Ophelia told MailOnline she saw Jay 15 minutes later walked ‘quickly’ but crucially the wrong way – up the hill towards the gorge instead of downhill towards Playa de las Americas.
Mystery still surrounds the exact time that Jay was reported missing to police.
His friend Lucy Law, who was on holiday with him in Tenerife, said she lost contact with him at 8.50am on June 17 when he phoned her to say he was ‘lost in the mountains, needed a drink and had one per cent on his battery’.
The family released this photo of Jay Slater on July 2
Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan and father Warren Slater leaving the Guardia Civil in Playa de las Americas
Ayub Qassim (pictured) rented the Airbnb which missing raver Jay Slater visited just before he disappeared
The £40-a-night Casa Abuela Tina holiday rental near the remote village of Masca where Jay spent his final hours before going missing
Jay Slater’s final Snapchat at the remote Airbnb before he went missing. It is not the same Snapchat as the one where he ‘admitted to stealing an expensive watch’.
Volunteers search for Jay in Masca as the teenager remains missing
Then the line went dead. Lucy says she called police at 9am to report him missing.
However, police have told MailOnline that Jay was officially reported missing ‘in the late afternoon early evening of June 17’.
Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan, his brother Zak and his father Warren all then flew out to Tenerife to help with the search effort.
The investigation has sadly been subjected to horrible conspiracy theories – which Jay’s family have condemned.
A GoFundMe was also set up by Lucy, which has raised more than £53,000 for the search effort and living costs.
After two weeks of activity, police in Tenerife stunned Jay’s mother and wider family by suspending the search on June 30 – despite having found no trace of him.
Parties of police officers, rescue workers and volunteers had spent that period repeatedly scouring the mountainous area near to where the 19-year-old was last seen.
They searched caves, ravines and paths, looking for any indication of what happened to Jay – and were supported in the hunt by helicopters, drones and dogs.
Announcing the shock decision, the Guardia Civil said that the investigation would remain open and that any relevant new information would be looked into – but active seeking would cease with immediate effect.
This was despite an ongoing offer from police in Jay’s native Lancashire to deploy officers to assist.
When Spanish police officially ended their search, TikTok sleuths and private investigators continued to help the family.
One of the most credible people helping was detective-turned investigator Mark Williams-Thomas who last week handed ‘significant new information’ to police investigating the mystery disappearance.
That came after he claimed that during Jay’s car journey with the two men to the property, Jay posted a video on social media boasting about the theft of a £12,000 Rolex watch.
MailOnline was the first media outlet to identify the man who rented the AirBnB as Qassim – a convicted drug dealer who when approached said Jay had ‘arrived alive and left alive’ but he has since refused to make further comment.
The case has sparked a huge amount of media interest – but underpinning this has been an even greater appetite for news from the general public.
This has been particularly fuelled by social media discussion – with Facebook particularly seeing huge numbers of people join in speculative discussions about the mystery.
This started with a ‘Find Jay’ Facebook group and has since spawned other variations.
This in turn has led to each new development being analysed and debated by the groups that have formed around the case.
In this sense the investigation around Jay’s disappearance has echoes of the case of Nicola Bulley.
The young mother went missing while walking her dog by the River Wyre in Lancashire last January -creating a mystery that captivated the UK for days before her body was finally found. She had drowned.
Posting on Instagram, Jay’s friend Brad Hargreaves who went on holiday with him and flew back last week, paid a poignant tribute.
Uploading a picture of the two of them with a string of red broken hearts and a crying emoji, he said:’No words. Nothing be the same without you. Rest easy brother. Love you always.’